Development and Characterization of a Laboratory-Scale Pulsed Electric Field System for Solid-Food Pretreatment
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food pretreatment, high-voltage generator, non-thermal food technology, pulsed electric field, rectangular pulsed
Abstract
Pulsed electric field (PEF) is a non-thermal food-processing technology that increases cell-membrane permeability, thereby facilitating mass transfer and the movement of biomolecules across the membrane. Although PEF has been widely applied to liquid foods, its use in solid food matrices remains limited because of challenges in designing treatment systems and controlling process parameters. This study aimed to develop and characterize a laboratory-scale PEF system for solid-food pretreatment and to evaluate its application for oxalate reduction in taro (Colocasia esculenta) tubers. The developed PEF system consists of five components: a high-voltage power supply based on a flyback converter, a capacitor bank for energy storage, a high-voltage SiC MOSFET switch, and an ESP32 microcontroller for pulsed control and a treatment chamber with stainless steel electrodes. Electrical characterization showed that the PEF system successfully generated monopolar rectangular pulses with a maximum output of 3 kV, pulse widths from 400 ns to 19.2 µs, and frequencies from 5.9 kHz to 1.98 MHz. The treatment chamber was designed with adjustable electrode spacing (0.5–3.5 cm), enabling a wide range of electric field strengths while maintaining the same pulse-generation system. Application of the PEF system at 1.08 kV/cm for 10 s reduced oxalate content in taro tubers by up to 39%. These results demonstrate the laboratory-scale PEF system's capability to generate controllable, high-voltage pulses suitable for solid-food pretreatment.
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References
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Copyright (c) 2026 Rani Anggraeni, Eko Hari Purnomo, Purwiyatno Hariyadi, Feri Kusnandar, Anto Tri Sugiarto, Dewi Indriati Hadi Putri, Bayu Purnomo
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